[Updates below.]

Things have changed considerably since the last time I wrote about vouchers. Bills have been sidelined, killed, amended, and proposed. It looks like there may be a substantial push to accomplish something before the legislative term ends.

The word around the Texas Capitol is that Chairman Kent Grusendorf believes he has enough votes to pass a private school voucher floor amendment, and he intends to force a voucher vote in the Texas House of Representatives in the next few days. The most likely legislative vehicle for a voucher amendment is Senate Bill 1108, which is ON THE SCHEDULE FOR THURSDAY, MAY 22 in the Texas House of Representatives.

SB 1108 was authored by Senator Florence Shapiro, Chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee. The bill has since gone through some changes.

As I said in my last post, I support voucher programs because they introduce a marginally higher level of individual freedom in education than a non-voucher system. However, the fact remains that this is still tax money used to fund the educations of others and I do not support that in the long run.

UPDATE(4/28/2004 9:26am)
Governor Perry would support a voucher plan if one crossed his desk after the special session. The other proposed solutions for Texas school financing aren't any better.